Reports are emerging of widespread IT outages affecting major institutions in Australia and around the world. The ABC, along with several other media outlets, has been impacted. A massive IT outage is wreaking havoc across Australia and beyond, with major banks, airlines, and media companies struggling to stay afloat.
Millions Of Australians Have Been Affected
Millions of Australians have been affected by widespread outages that have crippled multiple businesses, including banks, airlines, and media outlets. The chaos began around 3 pm on Friday, as computers across the country began shutting down, with numerous workers reporting issues at various companies.
The root of the problem lies in a “bluescreen error,” which is a result of a Crowdstrike outage. This has caused servers and devices to become stuck in “boot loops,” rendering them useless. Several media organizations, including the ABC, SBS, Channel 7, Channel 9, and News Corp Australia, have reported issues with their networks.
The IT issues are not limited to Australia, with outages reported in New Zealand, Japan, and India, among other countries. The full extent of the damage is still unclear, but one thing is certain – this outage has brought many industries to a grinding halt.
According to the crowd-sourced website Downdetector, outages have also been reported at Foxtel, National Australia Bank, and Bendigo Bank. All NSW government departments, including the police and fire and rescue services, have been affected, although Triple-0 is still operational. It appears highly likely that this outage is affecting workplaces across the nation.
As we head into afternoon peak hour, a spokesperson for Transport for NSW has confirmed that no services have been affected by the outage. Meanwhile, universities, law firms, Bunnings, blood donation services, banks, and supermarkets are among the places where people are reporting outages. Several companies seem to be impacted, including banking, media, and airline networks across the country.
The ABC, SBS, and Sky computer systems crashed this afternoon, interrupting programming. The following institutions and services appear to be down: all NSW government departments, police and fire rescue, banks, media outlets, Bunnings, Qantas, NAB, Bendigo Bank, TAB, Foxtel, airports, and Woolworths’ point-of-sale systems.
Flight Check-ins Have Been Affected
Flight check-ins have been affected, and Qantas has reported delays in boarding some flights. Shortly before 4 pm, an Airservices Australia spokesperson said air traffic management services are unaffected at this stage. Adelaide Airport has reported that a small number of bag drop facilities and flight information screens have been impacted, but check-in, security screening, and flights are operating as normal.
Supermarket Checkouts Appears To Have Been Affected
Supermarket checkouts also appear to have been affected, with a Woolworths checkout in Brisbane and surrounding areas down. A 7-Eleven store was unable to process transactions, leaving customers stranded.
90% of my local Woolworths registers had the #BSOD. Queues a mile long, absolute chaos. National outage? Local? pic.twitter.com/IuztPMfaQw
— BYoung ???????? (@MrBMYoung) July 19, 2024
Microsoft Has Reported A Major Outage
Microsoft has reported a major outage, which may be linked to the issue. The company is investigating issues with its cloud services in the US, which have caused the grounding and cancellation of several flights. Microsoft said its outage started at around 6 pm ET on Thursday (8 am Friday AEST), with a subset of its customers experiencing issues with multiple Azure services in the Central US region.
Major issues across Australia right now – appears to be connected to a Microsoft outage?
— Andrew Macfarlane (@andrewmacfnz) July 19, 2024
Australian Cyber Security Company Says Crowdstrike Appears To Be Linked To The Outage
Australian cybersecurity company CyberCX believes the outage may be linked to Crowdstrike, a global cybersecurity company that provides detection and monitoring tools to cyber and IT teams. CyberCX is advising its customers of the outage affecting organizations in Australia and New Zealand.
CyberCX is aware & advising customers of an outage affecting organisations in AU & NZ. We understand that this has been caused by an issue affecting organisations who have installed Crowdstrike Falcon in their IT environments. Crowdstrike is a global cyber security company who…
— CyberCX (@CyberCX) July 19, 2024
Crowdstrike Statement
CrowdStrike issued a statement on its website shortly after 4pm AEST, attributing the crashes to the ‘Falcon sensor’. The Falcon sensor is installed on business computers to gather security data.
“Symptoms of this issue include hosts experiencing a bug check/blue screen error related to the Falcon sensor,” the statement read. “Our engineering teams are actively working to resolve this issue, and there is no need to open a support ticket. Status updates will be posted below as we have more information to share.”
Outage Not Believed To Be Linked To Any Cyber Security Incident
The National Cyber Security Coordinator has stated that a “large-scale technical outage” is affecting people across Australia, but there is no information to suggest it is a cybersecurity incident. According to their statement, the outage relates to a technical issue with a third-party software platform employed by affected companies.
I am aware of a large-scale technical outage affecting a number of companies and services across Australia this afternoon.
Our current information is this outage relates to a technical issue with a third-party software platform employed by affected companies.
— National Cyber Security Coordinator (@AUCyberSecCoord) July 19, 2024
National Cyber Security Coordinator Michelle McGuinness has stated that there is no evidence to suggest the outage is a result of a hack or cybersecurity incident.
“I am aware of a large-scale technical outage affecting numerous companies and services across Australia this afternoon,” she wrote on X. “Our current information indicates that this outage is related to a technical issue with a third-party software platform employed by the affected companies.” She added that she continues to engage with key stakeholders.
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